


Familiar

by hops



Series: Sizzled Out [1]
Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Canon Era, Casual Relationship, Hookups, M/M, Polyamory, Slice of Life, episodic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-25
Updated: 2017-10-25
Packaged: 2019-01-23 01:31:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12495432
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hops/pseuds/hops
Summary: It happens like that a few more times. The excuses, the fumbling, the way Taako hops down from his bunk and into Magnus’s with ease. They kiss, and in the morning, they don’t mention it.But they think about it.





	Familiar

**Author's Note:**

> hey y'all! this is just kinda me sorting out my feelings on where taagnus is at during the actual campaign of TAZ so i can get organized for my postcanon. i could longfic this if i had the time, but man i Do Not, so have a little episodic taste into their relationship?? 
> 
> i like the idea of them being those casual hookup friends bc they're emotionally unavailable, but there's always that tiny bit of them that wants to be emotionally available. particularly bc they feel like they're home and they don't know why. 
> 
> also, always winding up finding each other? it's good shit.

When they meet as strangers, Magnus catches Taako’s eyes lingering.

“Don’t get any big ideas, beefcake.”

Magnus laughs. He hasn’t for awhile.

...

They brush hands on bedrolls outside the cave. Taako withdraws as if he’s been shocked.

...

The first time, it’s an accident.

They’re tipsy and stumbling and giggling like kids outside the dormitory door. Magnus shushes him with a smear of his index finger across his lips. Merle and Robbie are long-asleep.

Taako is too drunk to climb to the top bunk. Or at least that’s what he tells Magnus. He curls into the wall and minimizes himself so the larger man can sleep uninterrupted, calmed by the sound of his breathing.

Magnus curls around him, eyes closed but unsleeping. Taako, with the aid of sugary strawberry liquid courage, rolls over in an effort to get comfortable. To get warm.

It’s like gravity. One second his head is resting on Magnus’s forearm, the next his shoulder, and then they’re pressed nose-to-nose, eyes closed, breathing each other’s breath in synchrony. When their lips brush, he feels the sharp intake of Magnus’s breath as if it’s been pulled from his own lungs.

He kisses him softly, tasting cider. 

...

It’s the first time he’s kissed anyone since Julia. He wants to feel guilt, but he doesn’t. He only feels the pull of Taako’s hand in his hair, and the thrumming of _more, more, more._ There is something familiar in his touch. He’s afraid to ask himself what, so he doesn’t.

...

It happens like that a few more times. The excuses, the fumbling, the way Taako hops down from his bunk and into Magnus’s with ease. They kiss, and in the morning, they don’t mention it.

But they think about it.

...

It’s silent, save for the sound of Merle’s snoring now and again. They’re kissing and Magnus has him grasped gently in his palm. As Taako ruts into his hand, he pants, and Magnus presses a thumb rough to his lips to silence him.

In the morning, a lipstick smudge lingers on his thumbprint. Taako is long gone for the day.

...

He’s batting his lashes at Death himself, and Magnus feels strange.

He holds a little tighter, fucks a little harder when they get back from the lab. He’s not sure why he clings to Taako so tight.

He doesn’t notice the bruises he leaves until the next morning. He fixes Taako coffee as an apology.

...

The night they get back from Refuge, Taako sneaks into Magnus’s bed.

“You can only die so many times before you need to feel alive, am I right, my man?”

He’s joking breathlessly on top of him, but all Magnus wants to ask is if the dying felt as familiar as touching him does.

...

“Hey, uh, about that date you went on…?”

“Would rather not, bubbeleh.”

“But--”

“Doesn’t change things.”

“Okay.”

It doesn’t feel okay, but it’ll have to be.

 ...

He sneaks in one morning, still smelling of wine.

“Where you been, Maggie?”

Taako’s on the couch, flipping through a trashy romance novel. How apt.

He’s not sure how to answer that question. They haven’t had sex in weeks. Some nights he hears Kravitz in the next room. And it’s okay, he’s not angry. His bed just feels too big.

He walks close to him and Taako doesn’t flinch. He kisses him. It’s messy and quick and feels like the piece he’s been missing.

“Eugh. Go brush your teeth, lug.”

...

Taako doesn’t think about Wonderland until they’re supposed to leave in the morning. He trembles as he thinks about the portrait on the Director’s wall, how much younger she looked in the disguised portrait she’d revealed to them. What if something like that happens to him?

He gets up to crawl into Magnus’s bed like an old comfort, gone for long lapses of time. Nothing feels safer than him. When he opens his door, Magnus is already there, fist poised to knock.

“Oh,” Magnus says softly.

Taako pulls him in and kisses him. They don’t talk about the portrait, or tomorrow, or how afraid they are. They fumble in the dark with their shaking, desperate hands groping at hair and flesh. They cry out and breathe each other’s names like forgotten prayers.

As Magnus sleeps beside him, Taako hopes that if anything, he can protect him. There’s not enough good left in the world for it to lose Magnus, too

...

When he reaches for Magnus, arms outstretched, he touches the silver of his soul. He’s been here before. Or somewhere close.

The hammering of his heart says _home._ He can't hear it over the chaos.

...

His body is a pile of ash on the runway. He looks at Taako, like he’ll know what to do. He doesn’t.

Taako touches his wooden arm and he doesn’t feel it, but it’s more familiar than even before.

...

Magnus drinks the ichor and comes to with the sight of Taako’s staff level with Lucretia’s throat. He meets her eyes, then looks to him, then back at her as she begs for mercy. Unsure of what else to feel but trembling rage, or what else to do but stand by his side, he draws his sword and hardens himself to the tears in her eyes.

...

Magnus steals a long, nostalgic kiss before they part ways.

“For old time’s sake,” he says, and thumbs Taako’s bottom lip.

...

He feels Taako’s eyes on him when he hugs Lucretia.

...

It’s over.

It’s over, it’s over, and he’s kissing Magnus and he tastes cider and it’s never felt so good and bad and over. He’s not sure what it means.

He goes back to the celebration in the ruined streets and reaches for Kravitz’s hand.

He’s not sure what it means.

...

They part ways to start rebuilding, but some nights he winds up in Taako’s bed. He wants to call it an accident, but as he kisses down Taako’s thighs and smiles in spite of everything else, he knows it’s not.

They never quite lost each other.

...

Taako keeps the disguise spell up when Magnus is around.

...

“Hey, uh, about… everything?”

“We don’t have to talk about it.”

“Okay.”


End file.
